Another reminder that the problem is always people. Technology is great for spreading information and improving the world, but never forget, people created that technology, and people use the technology... and people always fuck up. Always.
The appeal of such machines seemed plain: Voting was crisp, instantaneous, logged digitally. To state officials—and, at first, voters—the free federal money seemed like a bargain. To computer scientists, it seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. Wallach remembers when he testified before the Houston City Council, urging members not to adopt the machines. "My testimony was: 'Wow, these are a bad idea. They’re just computers, and we know how to tamper with computers. That’s what we do,'" Wallach recalls." The county clerk, who has since retired, essentially said, 'You don’t know anything about what you’re talking about. These machines are great!' And then they bought them."
From Politico's How to Hack an Election in 7 Minutes
"I created this list of Russian trolls," writer Adrian Chen told the Longform podcast in December 2015. "And I check on it once in a while, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conservatives. I don’t know what’s going on, but they’re all tweeting about Donald Trump and stuff."
From The Daily Beast's How Russia Dominates Your Twitter Feed to Promote Lies
Note: I currently work for Hillary for America, and my posts to do not represent the thoughts of my employer. They are mine alone.